Sofia
Sofia "Minerva" Vozoras (Born October 3rd 2043) is an Italian immigrant, classical piano enthusiast, and Athena shaman who worked with the Stam. Sofia moved to Seattle from Rome as a teenager with her father Alfredo Vozoras, who unknown to her at the time, was fleeing from obligations involving the Italian Mafia. Sofia spent two years at the Seattle Universtiy before her enrollment was interrupted when her father's past came back with fury. The Italian mafia had found them both and was going to kill Alfredo, however, Sofia offered her expertise to the Seattle Mafia as a shaman in exchange that her father's life be spared, the Italian mob felt this was acceptable. After a few years working for the Mafia, Sofia was given a job where she came into contact with Stam. Her obligations to the mob were then dropped due to Sofia, and Stam, helping the Seattle mob boss, Hector Biggio. She later left Seattle after serving months as a shaman for the group after breaking her romantic relationship off with Rune, when she discovered his romantic involvement with Tia. After spending a month in France with her extended family, Sofia initiated further into her personal relationship with Athena and this initiation provided her first experience in talking directly with her mentor spirit. Athena led Sofia to Dusseldorf to contact Maximillion Cerda, she was later hired to join X10 due to her various experiences with powerful spirits and demons. History Childhood Sofia grew up in the suburbs on the outskirts o f Rome, Italy and was raised as an only child by her father Alfredo Vozoras. Her mother, Celia Vozoras, died after giving birth to Sofia after complications however before she passed she gave Sofia her name. Sofia attended public school in Rome and spent most of her time reading from the countless books her father, a used booksalesmen, had in his possesion. At a very young age Sofia began to take piano lessons due to her father's urgings and was immediately in love with music. Of all the types of books Sofia enjoyed she relished reading Mythology the most. The Roman goddess Minerva, more commonly known as the Greek Goddess Athena, was her favorite and as Sofia describes: as one of the few gods worth looking up to. In a sense, Sofia began to look up to the paragon of Athena like a mother since she did not have one. Sofia was a rather peculiar child and did not have many real friends. Also, despite being an attractive young lady, Sofia was an outcast among her peers and was frequently ridiculed for her introverted, shy, and overly intellectual personality. She had many imaginary friends, mostly characters from books she had read, among them being none other than the goddess Athena/Minerva herself. Sofia's father took her to many classical shows and operas and it was through this Sofia's love of music grew. She became particuarly charmed by the music of Ludwig Van Beethoven and since the age of 12 she has been trying to learn all his piano pieces by memory. Sofia also learned from her father to play the drums which she also enjoys as a change of pace when the classical mood is not striking her. Awakening About the age of 14 Sofia realized that she was an awakened. It started gradually from things like her imaginary friends of younger years began to actually visually appear and she could actually hear them speak to her. At first, Sofia was alarmed and thought she might be schizophrenic having read about the condition before. She kept the appearances to herself quietly hoping they would go away. One day on school grounds Sofia was reading an old leather bound book published in 1896 about birds, Sofia had taken the book without her father's permission from his shop. One of Sofia's classmates, and frequent tormentors, Luciana Moretti came over and began to tease Sofia. At first she ignored the taunts but Luciana pulled the book from her hand and began to tear pages from it and throwing it into the muddy ground. Sofia ran over to pull away the book and attack Luciana when a electrical bolt shot from Sofia's hand and knocked Luciana to the ground. Sofia was terrified and many of her classmates ran over and, seeing what she did, called her a murderer and a witch. Much to Sofia's relief, Luciana was revived and no serious damage was done. However, Sofia could no longer remain at her school and her father had to take her to the Rome Bureau of Awakened Peoples and register her with them. Afterwards Sofia was placed in an school for Awakeneds where she was much happier and able to thrive in both magic and music. Sofia soon developed the nickname Minerva due to both the associations with her first name and her love of mythology, owls, and poetry. She has carried the nickname ever since. The move to America and college years When Sofia graduated high school her father asked her to move with him to Seattle, Washington in North America. Sofia accepted not knowing her father's sordid past and true reasons for moving. Sofia enrolled at University of Seattle as a musical performance major with a focus in piano. Sofia greatly enjoyed college and spent four semesters at the University where she made many friends in the music department in particular her roommate Sasha Higgens, a troll clarinetest who Sofia would describe to anyone who asked her as being very sweet, smart, terribly shy around men and insecure about her looks, and way too much into anime. Sofia played several concerts consisting mostly of piano conciertos with the college orchestra. She was posed to become a professional musician however, this was soon tragically cut short. Sofia and the Mafia Sofia went to visit her father's new bookstore after her daily classes when she saw several men in black suits accosting her father. To her dread she learned that these men were mobsters and they were coming after her father for debts he had owed in Italy to the Mafia. Alfredo, her father, insisted to them that he had paid the debts and was promised to be left alone if he just left the country but the men insisted he still owed. Since Alfredo was unable to produce the money the men demanded so they told him and Sofia they were going to kill him. In desperation, Sofia threw herself between them and said she would serve them as an awakened. After some initial skepticism from the mobsters and her father's pleads that she not do this the mafia men agreed to Sofia's proposal and took her in to work as one of their resources. Sofia spent the next five years of her life assisting the Mob in shakedowns, interogations, heists, and various other criminal activities all of which she greatly dreaded and felt nothing but remorse for. To make matters worse, towards the end her father had developed lung cancer and was in critical condition. The mob reminded Sofia that if she leave it wouldn't just be her father who would die but members of her family in Italy too would be killed. One of the most common tormentors and reminder of her fate was Alfonso Biggio, brother of the mob leader at the time, Juno Biggio, whom Sofia had a very complicated, and quasi-romantic relationship with. She eventually was given a way out when offered a job by Seir to recover some lost lockboxes with unknown but important items in it. This would become her introduction to the armor plot as well as meeting her future allies in the group. Eventually, Sofia was realeased from Mafia service but not before enduring the tragedy of hearing of her father's passing and being unable to see him one last time. Sofia since then has been composing a piano piece honoring her father's life. Sofia In Game Personality Though some might describe Sofia as icy, she is generally a kind, polite, and pleasant person who cares much about the welfare of her fellows. Sofia considers herself, at heart, a performer and looks for ever opportunity she can to play music on her AR piano (or a keyboard/piano if at all possible) and also cooks genuine Italian meals for her cohorts. Sofia tends to be more of a supporter than a leader as she does not consider herself to be a soldier or a warrior. However, due to her changing circumstances having to run in the shadows and mostly the urgings of T-Rex to embrace the warrior role as her situation calls for it, Sofia has been tried harder to abandon any notions of just being a simple musician and realizing her potential as a shadowrunner. The armor plot has also played a great role in changing her perspective on herself as both the armor pieces and her mentor spirit have shown her that she has a important destiny. Sofia has come to accept somewhat of her responsibilities as a warrior and has joined X10 to test her resolve before she can comfortably remain in the role as a fighter. Mentor Spirit Sofia's mentor spirit which she harkens to as a shaman is the goddess Athena (or Minerva.) Initially, she considered herself an agnostic and viewed her mentor spirit as a metaphor or projection of inner attributes instead of a actual being, however, recent events involving encounters with Goddess worshippers, Dr. Vanessa Drake, Rune and his friend Thomas, and visions occuring during the armor plot have brought her to believe in an actual entity that is the Goddess. Sofia no longer considers her mentor spirit to be mere metaphor but the actual goddess Athena. As a shaman of Athena Sofia is required to practice honorable behavior particularly in combat. So far she has not failed in this. Her first encounter with Athena occured after she left Stam and wandered France. Athena told her a riddle that led her to Maxmillian Cerda, who later gave the ok to hire her for X10. She feels her abilities as a warrior still need to be tested and realized. The Souls The armor pieces that were scattered by Mr. Qi somehow developed (or already had) an affinity for Sofia and she possesses the ability to activate and deactivate the items. For this, Sofia feels she has a special destiny and must hold herself to a high standard to be worthy of this charge. A fellow shadowrunner, and lover Rune Komuso, pledged to Sofia that he would follow Sofia to the end and confirmed his belief as well that she had a special charge. Sofia resisted the allure of the souls power and vowed that they must be sealed away as they are far too dangerous to be left in the hands of mortals, herself included. This was accomplished to an extent and with Mr. Qi's success, her idea of destiny has turned grayer. The lesson she learned from the souls was that she needs to go deeper into herself and find out who she truly is and what she is capable of. Relationships Friendships Along with considering those in the group to be not only friends but family Sofia has also befriended quite a few people along her journey. One namely in particular is Dr. Vanessa Drake and Jordy Hollows who Sofia rescued from near death, both of whom she regards as sisters. Her roommate Nive, Sofia got along with quite well. Sofia considered herself particularly fond of Teucer as she found him the most warm person when she intitially met the group however the two have drifted slightly apart due to some misunderstandings, at least Sofia felt so. She is unsure how to approach her new X10 allies due to the newness of the relationships, but feels she has promise in befriending Rachel, Nazan, and Strelka quite easily. They remind her of the good times in Seattle. Juno Biggio was the mafia boss during Sofia's forced work with them. Juno, an appreciator of fine art and classical music developed a liking towards Sofia and often had her play private concerts for him and his friends but often just himself. Juno made an active attempt to romance Sofia and poured his charms on her with lavish gifts and flattering compliments. It is unknown how far Sofia's relationship with Juno Biggio extended. Sofia and Rune Recently Sofia became romantically involved with Rune Komuso though the seriousness and depth of the relationship was arguable. Sofia would confess she has a terrible attraction to both mysterious men and "bad boys" and that is quite argurably why she would involve herself with someone like Rune. Sofia was intriguied by his mysteriousness and asked him as many questions about his past as he will directly answer. She in turn answers the same for him. Rune eventually told Sofia his tragic past, about the murders he committed, and the torture he endured. This unsettled her, but she stuck by Rune in hopes to help him deal with his past. When it became obvious that Rune’s eyes were wandering towards Tia, she confronted him. The argument was settled maturely, with Sofia still maintaining her friendship with Tia, but Sofia decided it was best she left Seattle to visit ailing relatives in France. Sofia ended her relationship with Rune. It is unclear if Sofia will come back to Seattle, but she still remains friends with the group. Another possibility for Sofia most likely would have been Zan as he too has the enigmatic demeanor she finds attractive. Alfonso Biggio and "The Caged Bird" Though Sofia has ran into considerable amounts of opposition in her days of trial of them all Alfonso Biggio was the one she most hated. Alfonso bullied Sofia often during her stay in the Mafia, calling her "Caged Bird" and showed her complete lack of regard. After leaving the Mafia and Alfonso's power play against Hector Biggio Sofia found her apartment vandalized and her possesions destroyed beyond salvage by the hands of Alfonso who littered her ransacked apartment with dead birds and wrote "caged bird" in ashes all over the place. The destruction of her piano was a particular blow to Sofia. Her apartment's intrustion, however, was not discovered before Sofia killed Alfonso with a manabolt in the Rubicon when he had obtained all the armor pieces and began to open a portal which let the Shedim in. Sofia killed Alfonso and deactivated the armor pieces but not before the evil spirits Shedim had entered into their world. Sofia to this day still thinks she hasn't seen the last of Alfonso and is filled with dread at the very mention of his name. Category:Characters Category:Chapter 1 Category:Chapter 2 Category:X10